Because Rick made the last train out of Paris, he lived
to fight another day, and in the interim provided grist
for a great movie, "Casablanca." Those were years when
prescient men and women all over Europe were running
for the proverbial last train out, sometimes just a few
steps ahead of the Gestapo.

The essay whose title appears above was dispatched
to GATA members yesterday but seems to have had
trouble passing through to some email addresses,
perhaps because of its length. You can read it at
our message archive here:

As gold surged to a 15-month high of $298,50 Monday
morning, May 21st, market watchers were at a loss to
determine the reason. Some spoke of gold regaining its
"Safe Haven' role as inflation jitters moved investors
to switch from bonds to gold. Others pointed to growing
problems in the Middle East. We had also warned in

The last several weeks in the gold pit have seen a
most constructive pattern develop. Up a buck, up 90
cents, down a dime, up $2.10. Good action, good
two-way trade.

Now the bid side has always been thick, deep, and
stubborn, but ever since those rumblings about the
Bank of England choking up on the supply of lent
metal, the physical trade has tightened up markedly

MOSCOW, May 25 (Reuters) - Russia's deal with the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) would forbid Moscow
from selling gold from central bank reserves, even to
help flood victims, a government source told Reuters
on Friday. The source was commenting on Thursday's
statement from President Vladimir Putin that he was
willing to dip into Russia's gold and diamond reserves
to help people in the flood-hit Sakha Republic who have